The world didn't stop spinning when Eli landed back in the garage. It just tilted.
He sat on the floor, hands trembling, vision unfocused. Lyla crouched in front of him, her voice calm but firm.
"Stay with me, Eli. What year is it?"
He blinked. "2025."
"Who's the President?"
"I don't know. Does that matter right now?"
She smiled slightly. "Still you. Just checking."
Blood trickled from his nose. His fingers twitched involuntarily, and a dull pressure pulsed behind his eyes like a migraine had settled in with a grudge.
Lyla handed him a cold cloth and waited while he pressed it to his face.
"Talk to me," she said.
He tried.
"The space I landed in... it wasn't real. Or it was. But it was wrong. Like someone built it from my memories and then let it rot."
"What did you see?"
"A version of Nari. But she wasn't... her. She flickered like a projection."
"And the other you?"
He shivered. "He looked right at me. Like he knew I was coming."
Lyla sat back on her heels, expression tense. "That's not how time or space should work. This isn't just memory-jumping anymore."
"I know," Eli said. "Something's reaching back."
Later that night, while Lyla slept on the couch, Eli stared at his bedroom ceiling, earbuds in, music low.
He couldn't shake the feeling that the other version of him—the one in the mirror—had followed him back.
Every shadow looked longer. Every reflection made him hesitate.
His phone buzzed.
From: Unknown Number
Subject: [no subject]
Attachment: flamebearer_coords.gps
He sat up slowly.
"What the hell..."
He opened the file. It was a set of GPS coordinates pointing to an isolated location inland—deep in the forest above the wine valley.
He immediately messaged Lyla.
Eli: Someone sent me something. Coordinates. From an unknown number.
Lyla: Don't go alone. I'm wide awake now.
He stared at the coordinates again. His stomach churned.
Not fear. Something else.
Recognition.
The next morning, they cross-referenced the coordinates.
"It's real," Lyla said, tapping the map. "This area used to be a vineyard. Shut down in 2014. No public access. But people say there's a chapel in the woods."
"The same one from my jump?"
"Probably. Or maybe it's the original."
Eli nodded slowly. "I think I need to go back."
"You mean teleport again?"
"No. Drive. Walk. Whatever. I need to physically be there."
"Why?"
He hesitated, eyes fixed on the screen.
"Because the jump took something out of me. But the place? I think it's where this all started. Or ends."
Lyla folded her arms. "Then we go together. And we go prepared."
That night, while packing a flashlight and spare batteries, Eli caught his reflection in the darkened window.
For just a second, the reflection didn't move with him.
It smiled first.
YOU ARE READING
Life is Strange: Fractured Paths
FanfictionEli thought he was just developing an indie game with his friends. But when his younger sister vanishes, and reality itself starts glitching around him, he's pulled into a spiraling mystery of memory, code, and cults. Haunted by visions, warped phot...
